If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself. Mickey Mantle
We have been taught to "just eat a balanced diet." We have been taught wrong. The truth is natural healing works. Andrew Saul
Note: This post is not meant to be medical advice. It is only my experience--in all cases I sought medical treatment first and the nutritional information I received was secondary. I wouldn't dream of telling anyone they need to try a vitamin instead of going to the doctor. Before you try anything natural check with your doctor first.
Recently in a chat with a friend I approached the subject of natural healing for cancer. He didn't believe in it, while I think it has some value. I initially sat down to this blog post to write about my research on natural healing and the failings of the FDA, the government and drug companies to pursue research on alternate, and less barbaric, treatments for disease. Of course I'd be taking a risk of being dismissed as a nut. Which I am. However, in the end all I have that might make a difference is my own personal story; it's the only thing I know for certain. The medical community might dismiss my experience as anecdotal, but it is real and not just opinion.
When I was a young mom, I remember seeing an episode of the Today Show where the guest doctor said that if we eat a well balanced diet we didn't need to take vitamin supplements. I was relieved to hear that because I was worried whether my family needed supplements or not. But I didn't ask: what is a balanced diet? The kids were growing up strong and healthy, so I seemed to be doing the right thing with them but what about...me? I lived a high stress life, worried a lot, burned the candle at both ends and smoked--all of which destroy nutrients in the body. I didn't always practice good prenatal care either. I had serious bouts of tonsillitis every few months requiring antibiotics and even hospitalization. Every winter I caught a cold which left me with a cough that hung on for months, yet I didn't slow down my insane over-achiever schedule to rest and heal. I was often emotionally overwrought.
I started having trouble with my gums. Though I practiced good dental hygiene, I also practiced poor nutrition; I suffered regular bouts of pyorrhea, requiring antibiotics--which never completely healed the gums. One day while we were visiting my sister-in-law, I was suffering with painful gums again; she took charge and got me into see her dentist. While I waited in his expensive waiting room watching the giant salt water fish tank, I grumbled how much it was going to cost. I left there with three prescriptions. When I presented them to the pharmacist, he told me that two of them were only vitamins, did I want them? I was a little disappointed, I thought I was going to get real medicine, but I told him to only fill one of them. I think I told him to fill the best one, though.
I took the vitamins along with the antibiotics and was absolutely amazed. The gums completely healed and were normal for the first time in years. And I noticed a definite boost in energy, mood and well-being and I lost weight. I was down-right euphoric! That started my supplement journey. I still continued to smoke and live in high stress but the tonsillitis episodes dropped off to maybe once a year and they weren't as severe. I became convinced that I was missing some nutrition in my diet and that I needed to take a supplement every day. There were a few times in the beginning because we were short of money, I didn't buy them and I'd experience immediate flare-up with the gums. I have taken supplements faithfully for over 40 years. (By the way, when I quit smoking 22 years ago the tonsillitis went a way and the occasional colds were less severe.)
Being a natural researcher, I checked out every book in the library on the subject and became a little unbalanced about vitamins. I went through a "mega dose phase" and a "Euwell Gibbon's phase" where I ate weird things that were touted to be good for you; among other things, I took plankton for weight loss and large doses of chromium because it might reverse gray hair which started showing up by age 30.
Eventually I settled down into a more reasonable routine, however I learned many things in the process which have been useful to me -- One A Day Vitamins containing 100% of the MINIMUM daily requirement provide only enough of a supplement to prevent one from contracting the horrid diseases of old, such as scurvy and rickets. While they were better than nothing, they didn't provide a person with OPTIMUM health-- only minimum wellness. I never did well on them; my supplements today contain more than the 100%. I also learned that the body needs the trace minerals which are removed from foods in processing. One of these, selenium, joined with Vitamins C and E, fight the free radicals that cause cancer.
I have gotten along pretty well over the years-- learning and trying new things and have settled with a multi vitamin and mineral that works for me. Then entered the new health challenges in my life ...and The Herbs needed to deal with them, which I will write about in another post--this one is getting a little long.
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| Yellow Poppy Stepping stone 12" Acrylic on concrete. |
I hope this post is helpful to someone. On that note I'd like to emphasize what I have included in other posts on health and diet-- God didn't use a cookie cutter when he created us, so what guidelines work for me may not be your solution but I encourage everyone to search until they find the right answers--starting with your doctor. I am grateful to the Lord that I no longer blindly follow health notions that sound good without checking the facts and I am super grateful for that dentist. I hope you enjoy the art. Thank you for your support.
